Valyrian North
by fuduz
Summary: Thousand years before the conquest of Aegon Targaryen, the North found an ally in the form of old Valyria which led to change the North's financial, political and martial prowess. Rewrite of previous "Valyrian North". AU and some events are non canon compliant


_I own nothing_

Prologue

After eliminating the Night's King, the King of Winter, Brandon Stark also known as Brandon the Breaker and king beyond the wall, Joramun came to an accord to stop the long feud between the people who live south and north of the wall.

It was agreed that those who would bend the knee to the Starks of Winterfell would receive freedom to roam south of the wall and would be integrated into the Northern society on the condition of following the laws of the Northern kingdom. In return, Starks would disjoin the order of Night's Watch and stop the hunt of wildlings.

Almost all of the tribes of wildlings agreed to submit to the Starks as their liege as food was very scarce in lands beyond the wall. Giants also made passage south of the wall. For his effort, Joramun was awarded a lordship in Queencrown and he started house Mun. The freefolk were given the order that they would in no circumstances rape, reave or pillage. The practice of stealing wife was also ousted by the governing house of the North.

However the assimilation of freefolk in northern society was not without setbacks. Many houses expressed their dissatisfaction. In fact, House Bolton led a rebellion against the Starks; aided by house Watson, Batters and Stevens.

House Stark was supported by the newly found House Mun and house Umber as well as many other Northern houses. At the end of the rebellion the line of the Red king ended along with the other rebel Houses.

Of the freefolk, the Thenns were absolutely adamant to not bend the knee. So they raided the smallfolk and terrorized their homes and stalks. They were stopped by House Mun and the freefolk themselves.

To unite the North better, King Eddard, son of Brandon the Breaker arranged marriage matches of the Northern lords with the freefolk. As a matter of fact, he himself married a spearwife. Because of this, North truly became a cohesive kingdom in more than sixty years.

King Eddard also introduced an alternative to the Night's Watch. He repealed the order and replaced it with a new institution named 'Guardian of the Wall'. It was decreed that every son and daughter of noble families must go to the wall at the age of three and ten and spend a year there. In that period, they were to learn the art of fighting in snowy terrain and ranging. The order also had permanent officers albeit they did not have to swear off taking wives or fathering children. Any man or woman could rise above in the order despite their birth status or economical state.

House Stark took a pacifist approach when it came to ruling. They did not try to increase their domain or conquer more lands. But they did build a big army. The northern army consisted of more than twenty five thousand men, five hundred giants, hundred mammoths and hundred direwolves. Because of the vast amount of trees and forests, Northern houses were expert in building in war ships and fishing vessels. During King Eddard's period, North had almost one hundred war ships.

Three thousand years before Aegon's conquest, the Andals reached the shore of Westeros via Fingers of the Vale. As many follower of the old gods and children of the forest immigrated down the neck, house Stark called its banner to repel the foreign invaders.

Theon Stark, the hungry wolf resisted the effort of the Andals from the sea and the land. In counter, he attacked the island Andalos and burned down several villages. When he returned, he displayed the spiked heads of his victims along his coastline to deter future , He also faced a rebellion in the Rills and invasion from the iron born. He successfully threw back both his enemies.

The Andals were massacred in the neck by the Crannogmen. They were also thrown back by the strong fortification of Moat Cailin. Despite that, they did not stop their attacks on the North. Thus the Andals tried to invade three more times in the next thousand years and each of the assaults resulted in utter failures. Therefore the Andals left their dream to conquer the North.

In that mean time, children of the forest were given refuge in the North. To honor the pact between the first men and children of the forest, a section of the Wolfswood was donated to them and mandated that no men were allowed on those part of the wood. However many children preferred to stay in locality and some were even allowed to reside in Winterfell and many other northern castles.

Thousand years after the first invasion of Andals, House Manderly of Reach sought refuge in the North. They swore themselves as loyal vessel to House Stark for perpetuity and were tasked to defend the White Knife and were awarded Wolf's Den. Using the wealth brought from the Reach, they built the city of White Harbor.

While searching for any viable material that could be used in trade, House Manderly found huge amount of silver mines. Intrigued by this news, King Benjen Stark ordered a great expedition of the North which lasted almost twenty years. At the end of the colossal task, mines of gold, iron, bronze and blue crystals were discovered. The king ordered immediate mining of the minerals.

When the news of the discovery in the North spread; King Cregan, son of King Benjen, was contacted by the Valyrian freehold. Apparently, blue crystal was a substance that was necessary for the magic used in dragon horn. However the substance was very rare in Essos and very expensive.

Sensing opportunity, king Benjen started the talk of negotiation with the leaders of the freehold. After five years of talk, they finally came to an agreement regarding a trade deal.

In later years the friendship of the North and Valyria grew to unprecedented levels. A canal was built from the neck across the Narrow sea which lead to an easy trading path. The North was immensely rich in blue crystal as it could be found in every mile of the land. Because of that, almost every lord of North benefitted from the trade deal. In truth North became almost as rich as the Westerlands.

With newly found wealth, North set up at least one glass garden in every castle in the North which enabled to tackle winter a bit better.

Moreover Valyrian engineers and builders came to North and built many sky touching structures and vast roads. In return, North built them a fleet and ensured protection of their merchant ships.

The city of Wintertown was built heavily influenced by Valyria itself. Many important structure such as combat arena, library, Scholar's Tower and many healing centers were set up. The town's sanitation system was very enriched as a piping system was introduced to wash away filth and waste. Moreover many bathing houses were set up for the small folk.

The library and the Scholar's Tower were two buildings side to side in a single arena. The library was enriched with many ancient scrolls and old tomes. There were also many books of magic and lore as well as art of engineering and buildings of Old Valyria. The content of the library was so enriched that even the citadel of Old Town could not rival it.

On the other hand, Order of Scholar was the Northern answer of Order of Maester, although the scholars did not take any vow. Moreover both women and men were allowed to enter the building and gain knowledge. However similar to guardian of the wall, there was a group of highly brilliant men and women who pledged their lives to acquire knowledge and come out with inventions that benefitted the country.

To fund the projects and the works of the scholars, every Northern Houses had to pay a monetary provision to the order.

To celebrate five hundred years of friendship, the freehold of Valyria gifted House Stark a valyrian steel greatsword Ice and in return North gifted the patriarch of Valyria a great sculpture of dragon made from blue crystal.

However the relationship between the two friends was not always warm. One of the main disagreements was slavery. At first, many nobles in North opposed the tread deal on the basis of thralldom; which only subsided when the Valyrian freehold agreed that only criminals such as rapists and murderers would be subjected to the curse of slavery. Though the situation was far from being ideal, the Northern lords suppressed their hostility for their own benefit.

In addition to that, there was once when it seemed that war was inevitable. The only reason the conflict did not occur was the coming of winter. So taking advantage of the situation, the Starks initiated discussion and cleared the misunderstanding and subsequently avoided war with the most powerful nation in the known world.

The only thing lacking in the North was suitable food source that could save its people from severe famine that occurred in winter. And that is why North despite being as big as the other six kingdoms, did not have a large population. That was one of the reasons why the scholars or the guardians did not swear a vow of celibacy.

Though food was imported during winter, it was not sustainable. As the roads were blocked by severe amount of ice and snow, it was difficult for any men, women or even animals to survive the journey. Hence many towns especially in the far northern, did not receive rations soon enough. Thus many people had to die.

In order to suffice the need of food during winter, the scholars conducted an experiment to domesticate deer. They started the project by secluding a herd of deer from the wolfswood to a fenced large area rich of grass and other nourishments. Through trial and error, the scholars were able to find an appropriate method to breed deer and milk them.

To ensure the distribution of the meats and milk, a herd of at least hundred deer was sent to every castle in the North over the summer.

Moreover deerskin leather was found to be very soft but durable. Although it was not the best choice to wear jerkins made from deerskin in North, it was a popular product in warmer regions. Sensing another opportunity North became a hub for exporting that particular type of leather.

Similarly, breeding houses for sheep were set around the country. Though it was not as popular product as deer in the south or the east, it was a raw material to create wool and eventually create more warm clothes.

So when winter hit, the castles already had enough supplements to feed the population and thus ended the headache for a fitting food source during winter time.

In this period North experienced a population increase which enabled to increase farming and building. It also created more economical opportunities as well as improved security measures from the North.

The army also swelled in almost double in size as fifty thousand soldiers men and women could be called in along with hundred and fifty giants, not to mention the direwolves. With large number of subjects, North also expanded its navy to two hundred ships.

Many castles were built along the eastern and western coast to strengthen Northern border.

But the stability of growth came to a halt as North lost its major ally in the doom. The merchant ships which were used in tread between the North and Valyria brought many survivors including the member of Valeyus, one of the forty families of the freehold. However they were unable to save any dragons as the beasts were consumed by fire.

The Valyrians were given sanctuary but not the right to live in the North. If they were to live in North, they were given the conditions of bend their knees to Starks and also stop practicing incest and slavery. While many were outraged by the demand of 'lowly scums' and left Westeros, plenty of other bent the knee and accepted the offer including House Valeyus.

House Valeyus was rewarded with the land of Boltons and were given a new castle which was raised recently as Dreadfort was razed during the Bolton's rebellion. They were given the mean to income and rule as lords as thirty thousand Valyrians settled in their new surroundings.

Other Northern houses was wary about their new neighbor at first, which was eased later House Valeyus forsook their valyrian gods and embraced the religion of old gods of the forest and sea.

To compensate the loss of an ally, North associated themselves with the free city of Braavos. They built a relation established on trade and military.

The iron bank of Braavos agreed to a deal where they would pay fifty thousand gold dragons annually for a Northern army troop protecting them, and if needs be attack the enemies of the bank in Essos. Moreover a bank account was opened by House Stark; depositing hundred and fifty thousand gold coins at an interest rate of four percent annually.

The Northerners were happier doing business with the Braavosi as both parties were absolutely against any form of slavery.

In the next hundred years after the doom, North prospered economically, militarily and population wise.

The Northern houses could still call more than sixty thousand soldiers without scraping the last bit of the bowl, along with almost two hundred giants and a fleet of three hundred war vessels. Not to mention ten thousand extra men in the east.

So when the news of Aegon Targaryen's conquest of Westeros was received by Northern houses, they were relatively relaxed as they had the largest army in the continent. However their days of virtual ease did not last very long especially after 'field of fire' and burning of Harrenhal.

Every lord of the North was called in Winterfell in haste with their armies. However the lords were divided in their opinions. One party argued to go to war while other group wanted peace and articulated that a war of this scale could devastate the North and set them back thousands of years. Even the Children of the Forest voiced to negotiate the best deal for the north.

Finally the decision was put up for votes by King Torrhen Stark on the advice of Brandon Snow. The Greystarks were unhappy with the proceedings but did not raise their voice. The vote was on the favor of the pacifist party and King Torrhen Stark left Winterfell towards the Riverlands to treat with the dragonlords.

Despite taking the route of peace, King Torrhen did not send his banners home and told them to be ready if things go sideways.


End file.
